Alerts & Closures

Beginning Monday, January 27, 2014, an additional section of Market Street east of Sixth Street (University Blvd.) is scheduled to close to westbound traffic for the ongoing installation of underground utilities along the perimeter of the Galveston campus.

As a result, the following will occur:

Market Street westbound will be closed from Fourth Street (Holiday Drive) to Sixth Street. Market Street will become a one-way street eastbound from 12th Street to Fourth Street.

No parking will be allowed between Sixth and Fourth Streets on both the north and south sides of Market Street.

Effective Feb. 10, the southbound lanes of Sixth Street between Darrell Royal Avenue and Market Street will close. The northbound lanes will change to two-way traffic.

The entrance and exit to parking lot ABM (across from Arlan’s) from Market Street will close. The only accessible entrance and exit will be on the east side of the parking lot from Fifth Street between Darrell Royal Avenue and Market Street.

Signage will be in place to direct both pedestrian and vehicular traffic around the construction area. (See map). Temporary sidewalks and ramps will be routed to maintain pedestrian access.

As the concourse renovations continue on the first floor of the hospital and clinic buildings, the following closures and detours will be implemented effective Monday, Dec. 2:

Bank of six elevators – One elevator will be out of service through March 2014; two elevators will not have access to the first floor through January 2014; the three remaining elevators will continue to have access to all floors during this time.

Café on the Court – Access from the Main Street hallway to the hospital cafeteria, also known as Café on the Court, will be closed through January 2014. An alternate route will be available through the new staff corridors. (See map). Maps will be available at the information desk and signage will be posted to route staff, patients and visitors to the cafeteria.

Radiation Oncology Clinic – The primary hallway to the Radiation Oncology Clinic (from the north entrance of the UTMB Health Clinics building) will be closed through January 2014. An alternate route will be available to staff and patients through the staff corridor entrance next to the bank of two elevators. (See map). Maps will be available at the information desk and signage will be posted to route patients and staff to the clinic.

Beginning October 28, there will be impacts to pedestrian and vehicular traffic in the areas of Texas Ave. and Fourth Street (Holiday Drive) due to the demolition of Morgan Hall and the construction of the new East Utility Plant.

Sidewalks, crosswalks and ramps will route pedestrian traffic to the east side of Fourth Street (Holiday Drive).

Parking will be unavailable on the west side of Fourth Street (Holiday Drive), between Harborside Drive and Texas Ave., for the duration of the construction project, scheduled for completion in January 2016. (See map).

As the hospital concourse project continues, the bank of five elevators located outside of the Café on the Court cafeteria in the John Sealy Annex will be unavailable on the first floor only beginning Oct. 28 through Nov. 27, 2013. However, all five elevators will remain in service and be accessible on all of the upper floors during this time. Elevators located on the first floor in the McCullough Building, the UTMB Health Clinics Building and the John Sealy Hospital will be available for use during this phase of construction. Please note: the hallway where the closed elevators are located also will be inaccessible during this time. (See map).

Beginning Monday, Oct. 21, the sidewalk south of the John Sealy Hospital entrance will be closed to pedestrian traffic, and one lane of the driveway in front of the hospital will be closed to vehicular traffic. The other traffic lane will remain open at all times. Signage will be in place to direct both pedestrian and vehicular traffic. (See map). This construction plan, also known as the Sanitary Sewer Project, involves the installation of new manholes and piping in the sidewalk and driveway. The expected completion date is early November, 2013.

Beginning Monday, Oct. 14, the intersection of 11th Street and Strand, including segments east of 11th Street and north of the Strand, will be closed to both pedestrian and vehicular traffic. Signage will be in place to reroute pedestrian traffic. Construction in this area is expected to last through April 2014. (See map.)

This construction activity, known as the District Heating and Cooling System (DHCS) project, involves the replacement/hardening of two central utility plants and new overhead and underground utility distribution to meet UTMB’s critical needs in the event of a catastrophic incident. The end result will be a high resilience infrastructure system that will provide a thermal distribution loop to approximately 50 buildings on the UTMB campus and provide a secure connection between major research assets.

Read the message that Dr. Danny Jacobs, Mike Shriner and Jim Victor recently sent to the academic enterprise regarding the impact of this construction project.

Six blocks of Market Street are scheduled to close to westbound traffic beginning Monday, March 11, for installation of underground utilities at the University of Texas Medical Branch. The closure is expected to last about 14 months.

The traffic restrictions will be in effect between Sixth and 12th streets (see map). Eastbound traffic lanes and access to driveways along the street—including those leading to John Sealy Hospital and the Ninth Street traffic circle—will not be affected. However, large trucks will be using the eastbound lanes of Market Street periodically to haul away debris from the excavation sites. Drivers are encouraged to use alternative routes to reach numbered cross streets that lead into campus. Signs will soon be posted at Island Transit stops along the affected section of Market Street, informing riders of new stops during the construction.

The Market Street closure will allow crews to install underground high-temperature water lines. The water lines are part of a phased project to replace the less-efficient underground steam pipes, which supply heating systems in buildings. Flooding from Hurricane Ike in 2008 damaged the pipes. The new system is designed to be more resilient and to preserve mission-critical education, research and patient care operations on the Galveston campus in the event of a major disruption to city utilities.

Excavators will use directional boring equipment to minimize the need for trenches. The bore digs in a horizontal direction under the ground’s surface. The project is scheduled for completion in May 2014.

A $90 million expansion project at UTMB Health’s Specialty Care Center at Victory Lakes in League City will add an emergency department and beds to accommodate patients requiring overnight stays.

Site work begins the week of Feb. 25, and will require the temporary redirection of traffic in the area. However, throughout the project, access to the primary patient parking lot (at front of facility) will be available from the I-45 northbound feeder road.

During the first phase of construction, one of two access roads to the Specialty Care Center from Walker Street will be closed to traffic. Beginning around March 4, patients, visitors, and staff traveling on Walker Street will need to use the Victory Lakes Park and Ride road to access the patient and employee parking lots (see map).

Construction Zone (News & Updates)

On Aug. 19, workers will begin removing the existing ground-mounted UTMB signs at the John Sealy Hospital entry at Eighth and Market streets and the employee drop-off area near Ninth and Market streets. New signs will be installed in these areas as well as at Sixth and Market streets. During the construction, alternate traffic lane closures will be occurring; however, one lane will always remain open. The hospital entrance will not be blocked at any time. The work should be completed within four to six weeks, weather permitting.

On Wednesday, May 1, the main entrance to John Sealy Hospital will close in order to complete renovations to the hospital lobby and concourse. A temporary entrance has been constructed and will be accessible to the left of the main entrance. Once inside the hospital, detour signs will provide direction through the temporary lobby area (see map). The visitor elevators located in the lobby will not have service to the first floor during this time; signs will provide direction to the staff bank of six elevators. In addition, the hospital gift shop and the pastoral care office will be relocated to the south wing of John Sealy Hospital. The renovations should be complete by early July.

Public access into the UTMB Health Clinics building (formerly UHC) has changed slightly and is now through the newly renovated portion of the lobby. Access through the north entrance (Harborside Drive) remains open, but pedestrian traffic will be jogged to the east down a temporary hallway which opens into the new portion of the lobby. Also, the south entrance to the building has reopened (see map). This is all part of the concourse renovation project scheduled for completion later this year.

As renovations continue, the ground level entrances to the UTMB Health Clinics building will be closed on the weekends and there will be no ground floor elevator access. All pedestrian traffic will need to use an alternate route to the upper floors by using elevators that remain open in John Sealy Hospital or Research Bldg. 6.

Recently updated shuttle schedules are now online. UTMB Health’s Transportation Department helps move patients between our care units and service department areas. They also provide outpatient shuttle services to and from our Specialty Care Center at Victory Lakes and several other off-campus clinics. Shuttle services are available to UTMB employees, patients, medical staff and visitors on official university business at listed locations. However, please remember the Transportation Department shuttles are not a park-and-ride-to-work service (details on Park-and-Ride are below).